Marine Mucilage in the Sea of Marmara

 

Sea Snot

   Having recently offered you an acronym for our time (S.W.I.N.E.), I provide above a term for our time. It floated to the top in some headlines over the last few weeks. It is unfortunate that the Students Wildly Indignant About Nearly Everything are not more concerned about subjects like Sea Snot. Apparently included within their curriculum for condemnation are only those topics related to identity, race and gender. Or perhaps it is just that such environmental issues are too distressing to discuss and might trigger gloomy thoughts about our future. (I have noticed, by the way, that the CBC now prefaces, even the most benign story with this sentence: WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.) Consider that before you continue on.

   I was distressed during the first week of June to read about the catastrophe in Sri Lanka, which I always thought would be a highly desirable destination, except for the identity and racial problems, but now the beaches certainly are best avoided. All you need to know is found in the title of this article from The Guardian on June 4: Sri Lankans Face Up To 'Unmeasurable Cost' of Cargo Ship Disaster: Fishing Communities Fear for the Future As Oil, Plastic and Toxic Chemicals Devastate Ecosystem. Five days later, more marine pollution is spotted farther to the East, in the Sea of Marmara. I chose to show you the map rather than the Snot.

   Here is the headline which includes the phrase with which we are likely to become more familiar: "Turkey Launches Massive Effort to Vacuum up Thick Layer of 'Sea Snot' Choking Its Coast," Washington Post, June 9, 2021. Here are some details:

Thick layers of the viscous, slimy mucus colloquially known as “sea snot” have been wreaking havoc along Turkey’s coastline for months, choking harbors and clogging up fishermen’s nets while suffocating marine life. Scientists say that untreated sewage, agricultural runoff and other forms of pollution are responsible for the phenomenon, but that warming water temperatures caused by climate change appear to be making it even worse. The unappetizing muck has become a source of national embarrassment and rising anger. On Tuesday, Erdoğan vowed to designate the Sea of Marmara, which is between the Black and Aegean Seas, as a conservation area. Meanwhile, government officials launched a massive cleanup operation, using tanker trucks with suction hoses that park along the shoreline and effectively act as giant vacuum cleaners. Similar methods have been used to remove toxic blue-green algae from waterways in Florida.

   Although the phrase was new to me, I was surprised that Wikipedia all ready has an entry and not under a more pleasant euphemism. I did go searching, however, to find the first use of the odious words together and found them in this article from 2007, which locates the pollution closer to home. Given that it is the first use that I could find and since this reference is not found in the Wikipedia entry, here it is along with the first few paragraphs.

   "Say Hello to Sea Snot," Abram Katz, New Haven Register, August 19, 2007:

Aug. 19--DIDYMO is heading this way like a belligerent life force from a different planet. It clogs fast-moving, cold rivers with mats of material that literally wipe out the bottom of the food chain. Streams once rich with species of fish, plants and other organisms become aquatic deserts.

No one knows how to stop it.

The culprit, Didymosphenia geminata, is not from another world or even a different country. Didymo has been here for ages.

Lately, it has been expanding its range and changing its preferences for low-temperature, nutrient-poor, water. Biologists fear that other micro-organisms could make similar changes.

Meanwhile, didymo has been found in the northern reaches of the Connecticut River, in Vermont. A boater found a strange clump on a rock and brought it to local biologists for identification. Didymo had arrived.

There's no way to stop it, or even slow it down, biologists said.

So get ready for what is, colloquially, but incorrectly, called "sea snot."

The Bonus: 

   I doubt if you need more snot sources so I will skip to the bonus and provide you with an apercu, since I haven't offered one in a while - Apercu #3. It comes in the form of a rather tasteless bon mot offered by the British footballer, George Best. Warning - If you are a member of the herd of S.WI.N.E. it will likely put your knickers in a knot.

Mr. Best apparently offered this comment about his life: "I spent most of my money on women and drink. I wasted the rest."

Once again, doing due diligence on your behalf, I found this variant in the Wikipedia entry for Best: When asked what happened to the money he had earned, Best quipped: "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds (women) and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."

Among other inappropriate utterances by him, one finds:

"I used to go missing a lot -- Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World..."

"In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol. It was the worst 20 minutes of my life."

Ta-da!

Mission Blue - an organization that is attempting to do something for our oceans.

Mission Blue inspires action to explore and protect the ocean. Led by legendary oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, Mission Blue is uniting a global coalition to inspire an upwelling of public awareness, access and support for a worldwide network of marine protected areas – Hope Spots.